Ghana’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) says the country needs dedicated and selfless combatants to succeed in the fight against money laundering (ML), cyber and other financial crimes.
According to the Centre, such efforts were needed to curb the rising ML and financial crimes which have devastating effects on individuals, institutions, and the Ghanaian economy.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of FIC Ghana, Philip Danso who made call last day of a two day training workshop: ‘Improving Knowledge Base for Effective Financial and Economic Reporting’ held in Prampram in the Greater Accra Region, stressed that concerted efforts by stakeholders (local and international) were key to combat financial crimes.
Criminals are always on the look for ways to corrupt, compromise and blackmail officials, hence the need for stronger collaborations among all the stakeholders, he stated.
Mr Danso maintained that; “the need for cooperation and collaboration among national stakeholder institutions to fight ML and Financial Terrorism (FT) is very essential. Section 49 Act 749 enjoins officers of public agencies to cooperate with the FIC”.
“In this regard, the FIC has executed MoUs with some key stakeholders whiles drafts have been forwarded to others for study and execution”.
The Centre, according to him, was collaborating with the Bank of Ghana, National Insurance Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, Narcotics Control Board, Economic and Organized Crime Office, Ghana Immigration Service, among others.
The FIC has also executed MoUs with other countries to enhance collaboration and timeous sharing of intelligence.
These, Mr Danso mentioned include Togo, Nigeria, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Colombia, and Guinea Bissau.
Furthermore, the FIC is collaborating with other international stakeholders such as Financial Action Task Force (FATF), United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA); UN Convention Against Corruption; AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, among others.
Touching on the achievements of the Centre, the Deputy CEO indicated that the FIC worked in collaboration with other stakeholders to remove Ghana from FATF blacklist, enactment of relevant laws namely Executive Instrument 2013 (E.I. 2) and Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Act, 2014 (Act 874), and the launch of National Risk Assessment, last year.
While the challenges of the Centre, Mr Danso mentioned include inadequate funding, lack of synergy between stakeholders, pace of technological advancement posing major threats within financial institutions, and limited awareness and expertise among Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to conduct financial investigations.
African Eye News.com
